


Bully

by AleishaDreams



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Children, Children, Children Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-22
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-10 15:11:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4396748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AleishaDreams/pseuds/AleishaDreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s a weird feeling.</p><p>It’s a weird feeling and he doesn’t understand why it’s there in the first place, or when he started to have it. It just happened one day. A strange tug on his stomach, as if someone -- a little goblin inside of him or something -- is pulling him from the inside, using his navel as an anchor, that also closed his throat and trapped his voice in a cage.</p><p>It happened one day of spring when he was looking at Rin.</p><p>And it was so strange, so weird and sudden, that the only thing he was able to do was poke Rin in his ribs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bully

**Author's Note:**

> Rin never goes to Iwatobi in this story.

It’s a weird feeling.

It’s a weird feeling and he doesn’t understand why it’s there in the first place, or when he started to have it. It just happened one day. A strange tug on his stomach, as if someone -- a little goblin inside of him or something -- is pulling him from the inside, using his navel as an anchor, that also closed his throat and trapped his voice in a cage.

It happened one day of spring when he was looking at Rin.

And it was so strange, so weird and sudden, that the only thing he was able to do was poke Rin in his ribs.

“Hey!” Rin complained that day, rubbing the sore spot in his ribcage, “Why did you do that?!”

He didn’t have a clear answer, not even for himself, so he just grinned with his white teeth.

“Because you’re dumb,” he replied.

Rin, expectedly, poked him back and called him “dumber”. Rin’s laughs echoed in the classroom and in his ears, making his heart flutter in an odd way.

It’s a weird feeling, he had never experienced it before in his young ten years -- soon eleven -- of life, but he guesses it’ll disappear with time.

Or so Sousuke hoped.

But, of course, life doesn’t always go as one would like and this time is no different. The strange feeling in his stomach doesn’t go away, it even increments for some unknown reason, but Sousuke never says something about it. Not to his mother, or his father, or even to Rin; because it comes and goes without telling to anyone, so it should not be anything to worry about.

 

Sousuke is sitting under a tree’s shadow in a park. It’s the middle of the summer, the weather is hot against the skin and every breath that the young boy takes feels warm on his lungs. The shadow covering him at least relieves some of the heat, but he still can feel drops of sweat trailing down his back.

He checks his watch for what must be the hundredth time. 4:30 PM. Sousuke sighs, closing his teal eyes. Where is he?

“Sousuke!” he hears out of nowhere.

The boy looks up front, his eyes being blinded momentarily because of the bright sun, but seconds later he sees a tiny figure running to him while waving an arm.

Red long hair floating in the air, red eyes that burn with life, and a smile full of cockiness.

Matsuoka Rin is his name.

And as soon as his eyes center on the redhead his stomach is tugged from the inside. He tries to swallow but it’s impossible because his throat seems to be clogged suddenly.

“Sorry, sorry!” Rin says when he is in front of Sousuke. He’s panting with a tired breath, his forehead is wet on sweat, and his red hair is disheveled in all directions. “I know I’m late, but Gou wouldn’t let me go before I gave her my piece of cake.”

Rin is still standing up, but his hands are placed on his knees to recover his breath. A few drops of sweat fall from his forehead to the ground. Sousuke doesn’t say anything, he just keeps looking at his friend.

That weird feeling on his stomach is so strong, so strong he’s afraid he might throw up. He does the first thing that comes up to his mind.

With a quick movement, Sousuke pulls one lock of Rin’s hair -- it’s wet to the touch --. It isn’t that forceful but it’s enough for Rin to complain.

“Oi! I said sorry already!” Rin says but he doesn’t move, waiting for Sousuke to let him go. “Stop it!” he demands when the black-haired boy stays still.

Sousuke finally lets go of the lock. His fingers feel slightly wet.

“Are you really that mad? Man...” Rin questions the other boy. His hand travels all the way to his hair, that he removes from his forehead.

“We were supposed to meet at 4 PM,” Sousuke says, finally standing up from his place and shaking off the dirt from his bottom.

Actually, he isn’t really that mad. Sure, maybe a little pissed off, but not mad. But “mad” would be the perfect excuse to pester Rin a little.

“And I already said I’m sorry! It’s not like it’s my fault,” the redhead crosses his arms, looking the other way and -- most likely unconscious of it -- pouting his lips. Sousuke swallows again.

He pokes Rin on the stomach, surprising the redhead for the sudden approach, whom looks at him with wide red eyes. They stay silent for a few seconds, staring at it each other, until Rin laughs loudly.

“You’re so dumb, Sousuke!” Rin exclaims as he pokes Sousuke back, right in the stomach, multiple times.

“Says the dumber one,” Sousuke talks back, trying to protect his middle from Rin’s attack while attempting to poke Rin himself.

The day continues as normal. They had decided the day before to explore some part of the woods and that’s why they agreed to meet at 4 PM. Although Sousuke is stronger than Rin, Rin is more agile, therefore he’s better at tree climbing than the black-haired boy. For this motive, most of the time Sousuke stays safe on the ground while Rin climbs various trees to decide what way would be better to take.

Rin is on a tree, watching the horizons, his right hand over his eyes to protect them from the sun. His eyebrows are creased in a concentrated state of mind, his lips once again are pouted, and both of his legs are hanging from the thick branch’s sides. The vibrant green of the leaves gives him a green hue, thanks to the sunlight passing through the treetop. Sousuke is on the ground, waiting for Rin to talk, his eyes never gazing away from the redhead.

A smile adorns Rin’s face as he says, “Over there!”

He uses his hand to point in a direction, but Sousuke doesn’t look away from Rin. With graceful movements of his arms and legs, Rin hops to the ground next to Sousuke, as if going up and down a tree is something everyone can do.

“What did you see?” Sousuke asks.

“A really big tree,”

Sousuke arches one of his eyebrows, unimpressed, “It’s a forest, of course there are trees…”

“But this is really big! C’mon!”

Rin runs off before Sousuke can say anything else. Sousuke follows him rapidly, calling his name, but his friend simply laughs it off. Sousuke feels the air caressing his face, playing with his black hair, while he hears the forest’s floor crunching under him with his quick steps.

The tall trees offer cover from the hot sun, making the temperature much cooler in the forest than anywhere else, and running like this is easier for him now that the sun isn’t burning his skin. Thanks to this, he is able to reach Rin, but the redhead stops suddenly. Sousuke stumbles and crashes against the smaller boy, both of them falling to the floor.

“Watch where you are going, Sousuke!” Rin complains in pain under the black-haired boy.

“It’s your fault for stopping out of nowhere!” Sousuke says as he stands up. His knees are a little scratched but nothing to worry about.

Rin stands up seconds later, shaking the dirt of his clothes while mumbling something about his mother eating him alive for going back home all nasty, but Sousuke is distracted by their surroundings. The reason of why Rin stopped without previous notice is because they had arrived to their destination.

In front of them is a huge weeping willow, its branches falling gracefully with leaves full of green and life, the rays of sun barely passing through the thick treetop. The willow is tall, its trunk wide, and the branches long enough to almost touch the floor in some parts.

“Told you it was big!” Rin’s voice brings him back to the present. Sousuke looks at the red eyes, that are brimming with pride and excitement. “Let’s go, I wanna climb it!”

The redhead once again goes without waiting for Sousuke, promptly passing through the hanging branches like a curtain to another world. Sousuke follows him. Inside, the green hue only intensified, caressing Rin’s skin softly.

“Wow…” Rin says in awe, turning around in a full circle to look everything. Then he smiles, this cheeky grin of him always means that he has a new idea or that he just discovered something interesting. “The branches look strong enough, I’m gonna do it.”

As Rin says that, he walks closer to the tree, hoping to one of the branches that are close to the ground. Analyzing the tree, Sousuke is pretty sure he could try and climb up to accompany the redhead. He gets near the tree, touching the rough cortex of the same branch that Rin firstly climbed.

“Are you gonna try it?!” Rin’s voice echoes down to his ears. Sousuke looks up, finding Rin already up, meters away from him. The redhead is sitting comfortably on a thick branch, smiling down to Sousuke, looking excited. “Be careful to not fall down!”

Sousuke frowns and bites his tongue, feeling irritated at Rin’s obvious condescension. But, truth be told, Rin has good enough reasons to warn Sousuke about it. It wouldn’t be the first time Sousuke falls from a tree in a lousy attempt to keep up with his friend. With a last sigh to grip up all of his courage, Sousuke climbs the first branch.

His hands and knees are trembling, and his brain is telling him --  **yelling at him**  -- that this is a horrible idea, and that he should get down to the safe floor. He looks up again, to be met with Rin’s red eyes and wide smile, the little boy is swinging his legs excitedly.

The black-haired boy proceeds with his trial, going up and up, hearing Rin’s occasional words of motivation and advice for optimal tree climbing. Sometimes he slips a bit, but he’s able to maintain balance for the most part. After what it felt like an eternity, Sousuke is sitting in a branch just under Rin’s, hugging his own branch as if his life depended on it -- and it kind of is --. His teal eyes are focused on the floor all the way down there, it seems to be so far away, if Sousuke’s body betrayed him and fell, he would definitely suffer from some major hits and wounds.

“You did it!”

Sousuke looks up and his voice is lost somewhere deep in his chest. Rin has laid down on the branch, with his chest comfortably resting on it while his legs hang from its sides, he looks so relaxed and content with himself. The sun is hitting Rin on the back of his head, so his face is mostly darkened, but his red, disheveled hair shines with the sunlight that seems to crown Rin altogether. Like a king for this silent forest.

Sousuke finds himself unable to look away.

“I knew you could do it,” Rin continues talking, his smile proud.

“Don’t be stupid!” Sousuke counters him. For a moment, Rin looks taken back at Sousuke’s reply, his lips forming a line and blinking in silence.

Sousuke looks away, resting his cheek over the rough cortex of the branch. He can’t explain why he reacted like that, it just seemed the correct way to do so, or so his guts told him in that instant. It doesn’t matter, anyway, because Rin then keeps talking.

“It’s easy to climb, tho, the hard part is going down! But don’t worry, I’ll help you.”

Rin goes down to Sousuke’s branch easily, like a cat taking an everyday walk, but the teal-eyed boy doesn’t move at all. Sousuke can feel Rin’s eyes staring the back of his head. It feels tingly.

“Are you gonna move or…”

“Shut up, Rin!”

Again, Rin quiets down, silent behind Sousuke. Sousuke’s ears are invaded with the silence, only listening to the wind playing with the willow’s thin branches and leaves to make music that no one dances to. He closes his eyes, feeling overwhelmed suddenly; by the height, by the huge tree, by Rin’s red hair.

“Are you scared?”

Sousuke opens his eyes, finding red eyes in front of him. Rin is sitting now on the branch under him, somehow achieving to move over there without Sousuke noticing.

The natural music coming from the branches perseveres, and not only that but the wind now plays with Rin’s hair too, moving it with a calm rhythm. Now that Sousuke pays attention, Rin has some small leaves intertwined on his hair, and in his forehead is a red spot the size of a round cookie, probably from their earlier altercation when Sousuke crashed over him to the floor.

“I’m not scared,” Sousuke replies with a murmur. He doesn’t know if he’s scared or what, the only thing that he knows is that he wants to be on the ground already so he can poke Rin on his ribs or maybe pull his hair a little.

“Ok, just follow me,” Rin says, smiling widely. With a swift movement, Rin slides off the branch to the next one.

Not wanting to fall behind, Sousuke releases his tight grip on his branch to slowly go down to the one under him. Rin once again takes the role of motivation speaker and advisor, guiding Sousuke down and down through the whole adventure. When they are finally on the ground, Sousuke offers a quick prayer to any hearing deity.

“We should totally make this tree our fort!” Rin suggests, both hands in his hips as his eyes travel around the place.

His hands are still a little shaky when he lifts one of them, directing it right into Rin’s hair to pick out a leave that is tangled in the red threads, the contact is minimal but is enough to make Sousuke’s heart tremble and for Rin to turn around, finding the black-haired boy with his hand up and close to his hair.

They stare at each other in silence. Sousuke can feel the wind invading his ears one more time. Suddenly Rin’s red eyes feel like too much over him.

Sousuke pulls Rin’s hair.

“Ow!” Rin complains immediately, swatting away Sousuke’s hand with a slap on his wrist, “Enough with that, Sousuke!”

Sousuke drops his hand to his side, looking intensively at Rin who now is shaking his hair to get all the leaves off of his head. Both of his hands tingle with the scene.

He so wants to poke Rin’s ribs.

 

The wind gets colder, and the weather more humid, forcing the residents of Sano to take out their jackets and scarfs for the first time of the year. The green of the leaves slowly changes to yellow, orange and vibrant red, covering the streets, the sidewalks, and the ground with the colors of the autumn with a natural rug of crunchy leaves.  Sousuke loves these crunchy leaves.

“Ready?!”

Rin yells at him, his feet separated from each other -- one behind and the other upfront --, his hands are clenched in little fists. His brown backpack is hanging behind him with the buckle open without any regards.

“Set!...”

Sousuke responds to Rin’s shout, taking the same position as his companion. They are at the beginning of one of the longest roads of Sano, there are lots of trees to its side and all of them are plastered with leaves of different colors, but so is the floor, with the promise of delightful crunchiness in every step.

“Go!”

They both yell in unison, running away through the road. Sousuke immediately hears the leaves’ rustle and crunch under his rapid feet. His lungs are filled with the cold air that he has to breathe, and that also hits his face without mercy. For a second he believes that his scarf will fly off because of the velocity he’s running with, but he made a good job back at school when putting it on again when the bell rang.

Next to him, Rin is also running with all his might, irresponsibly breathing through his mouth instead of his nose. If he keeps it like that, he will get tired in no time, and his sides will hurt, but Sousuke is no one to tell him to do otherwise. Besides, that also means Sousuke has better possibilities of winning the race.

The end of the road appears before them, being marked by a small sign that reads “look both sides before passing” that also functions as a goal for them. Sousuke uses his last forces to accelerate his pace, surpassing Rin and leaving him behind, but this only ignites Rin’s desire to win more so the redhead follows suit him.

It’s not enough to pass Sousuke, but when the black-haired boy is about to touch the sign, he hears Rin yelling.

“Dammit!”

And a thud sound behind him.

Sousuke stops running to look around. Rin isn’t running anymore, he’s crouched on the floor, surrounded by books and other school supplies that apparently fell from Rin’s open backpack that is on the floor next to the redhead. Sousuke laughs a little before walking towards Rin, helping him to pick up his stuff.

“You always leave your backpack open, these are the consequences,” Sousuke says, faking an annoyed tone of voice that he’s sure Rin will get.

“Shut up, I know!” Rin replies, grabbing a notebook to put it inside the backpack, “I just forgot.”

“You always ‘forget’, Rin.”

He’s almost sure that Rin doesn’t actually forget it, he just is always so busy and occupied with other things that he probably thinks that not closing his backpack will save time in order to do more “important” stuff -- like racing Sousuke to the sign --.

“Anyways,” Sousuke continues, “I won the race.”

“No, you didn’t! You didn’t touch the sign!” his companion complains, his cheeks are red for some reason.

“Because I’m here helping you, you idiot,” he says as he picks up Rin’s pencils, putting them inside of the pencil case. “Ah, it’s broken.”

Rin’s pencil case is red, with a cartoony shark -- Rin’s favorite animal -- with big fangs, on the lid. The plastic lock it’s broken, making the pencil case useless without it.

“Oh, damn. Don’t tell me that,” Rin takes the pencil case from Sousuke’s hands to check it, clicking his tongue in disapproval, “My mom won’t buy me another one, this is the second this year.”

Sousuke snickers, “You should take better care of your things.”

But Rin doesn’t reply to his provocation, the young boy is looking at the pencil case with saddened eyes and he’s worrying his lips with his teeth, using his hands to turn around the pencil case as if he could find a way to fix it by just looking at it.

Sousuke’s stomach lurches.

His hand is faster than his mind, pushing Rin and making him fall completely to his butt with a grunt. The pencil case flies out of his hands, landing on the hard floor, the pencils are spread again in the concrete. Sousuke stays still, his hand in the air and his teal eyes looking at Rin who is in the floor, staring at him in disbelief of what just happened.

Rin’s lips open a little to be immediately closed. It makes Sousuke mad.

“Sousuke--”

“Don’t cry about it!” Sousuke claims, shutting up whatever Rin is about to say seconds ago, “It’s just a stupid pencil case…”

Sousuke looks away from those red eyes that burn him on his chest, provoking his heart to beat faster and uncomfortably. He doesn’t like it one bit. But he likes it less when Rin doesn’t say anything, to simply crouch again and pick up the rest of his things. Sousuke helps him in silence.

What is going on?

When they finish, they stand up -- Rin now making sure to close his backpack -- and continue their way. Sousuke sees when Rin touches the sign as they walk pass by it. He decides to not comment on it.

They arrive to their destination, their newly founded -- back at summer -- fort. The weeping willow stands proud with its yellow, long curtains of leaves. The forest floor is covered in yellow and red too. The trees around the willow also carry their own colors of the autumn. Rin passes through the willow’s branches, Sousuke closely following him.

As always, the sun tints Rin’s skin with whatever color the weeping willow is, this time being a warm hue of yellow. The redhead leaves his backpack on the floor and starts climbing up the willow, just a few branches above the ground. Sousuke, by his part, looks around their environment.

In the past few months, both Rin and him have brought stuff to the so called fort; a big wooden crate that serves as a table and compartiment to stuff their things there, a bottle of water they procure to change regularly, some rocks that Rin found interesting for their shapes and colors, and an old blanket that Sousuke’s mom was about to throw away.

The teal eyes look up to Rin, finding him sitting in a branch, swinging his legs without any regards of fear and safety, but what actually calls Sousuke’s attention is that Rin is watching him intensively. Next to the redheaded boy, a piece of long, red fabric that is tied to a branch flutters with the cool wind, dancing along with Rin’s hair.

The red cloth is a “flag” that Rin decided to bring with him one day, saying that it’s important for every self-respected fort to have a flag.

“What?” Sousuke asks Rin before he feels his voice getting lost again in the depths of his chest.

“Aren’t you coming up?”

Sousuke arches his eyebrows, mildly surprised by the question, he had thought that Rin would last mad at him a little longer. Taking the invitation, Sousuke leaves his backpack next to Rin’s on the floor and begins climbing up. He has been practicing his climbing-tree techniques under Rin’s strict supervision, the thickness of the willow’s branches also helped on his mission.

Carefully, Sousuke climbs up with shaky hands and trembling feet until he’s sitting next to Rin, who gives him a cheeky smile with closed eyes.

“It’s getting easier, right?” Rin questions him, “Getting up here.”

“I guess.”

“I’m glad, it was kind of boring to climb up by myself and you staying down there.”

Rin’s eyes look down to the ground, Sousuke doing the same after him. They aren’t that up in the tree, but their backpacks look really small from where they are anyways. Did Sousuke used to look the same for Rin when he stayed on the floor? What did Rin think of him then? What does Rin think of him now?

Sousuke looks towards Rin, being welcomed by a pair of red eyes that are already looking at him.

It’s too late to speak because Sousuke is sure his voice is lost again, trapped in the cage that his throat has become in merely seconds. Rin worries with lips a little before looking away again. “How unfair,” Sousuke thinks for himself, feeling angry with Rin out of nowhere.

Whatever is happening with him, Sousuke is sure it’s Rin’s fault.

All of it, it’s Rin’s fault, from his stomach twitching, to his tingly hands, to his voice getting lost every time he sees the red hair. It’s frustrating because Sousuke can’t help it, and the only way he has found out relieves all of this is to pick on Rin. Deep inside his head he knows he’s being unfair with his friend, but ultimately it’s Rin’s fault in the first place, so it should be alright to bother him a little now and then.

With that thought in mind, Sousuke pokes Rin in his ribs, feeling how the other boys shudders with the slight pain and grunts.

“Knock it off!” Rin shouts, slapping away Sousuke’s hand.

Sousuke, ridiculously, feels rejected by this. A sharp sting direct to the heart that takes control of his body as if possessed, to continue poking at Rin’s ribs and middle, making him squirm.

“Stop! We’re gonna fall!”

Sousuke knows that what Rin is saying is true, they could fall and hurt themselves if he keeps this up, and yet he doesn’t listen nor he stops. He picks and pokes until Rin has his back against the willow’s trunk. Sousuke has his legs hanging at each side of the branch, the height long forgotten by him. The redhead covers his middle with both arms to defend himself, but that just leave his neck unprotected, which Sousuke takes advantage immediately, poking there.

He doesn’t receive more complaining from Rin, but a giggle, at the same time that Rin lowers his head.

The taller boy stops altogether, his whole body freezing in time except for his heart that starts beating and hitting against his chest.

“I--” he begins talking but his throat is constricted, so he must clear it first, “I didn’t know you are ticklish.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Rin replies, a little pout on his lips and his red eyes looking everywhere except to Sousuke’s, “Let’s go down already.”

Rin doesn’t wait for an answer, he quickly moves to the branch under theirs, with an amazing agility that Sousuke questions if Rin was a cat in another life instead of a shark. Sousuke doesn’t move from his place, watching how Rin gets lower and lower down the tree till he finally plants both feet securely in the ground. The redhead then looks up to Sousuke.

Rin looks small.

“Are you coming down or what?!” Rin calls him from the floor.

Sousuke promptly starts his way down, waking up from his stupor, although he isn’t as fast as his friend he eventually is on the floor next to him. When he’s about to talk to Rin, he’s hit on the face with a bunch of dry leaves, leaving his face slightly humid and with a little spot of wet dirt in a cheek. Sousuke opens his teal eyes and sees Rin laughing mercilessly, holding his stomach.

“You weren’t expecting  **that** , right?!” Rin says, still laughing without any kind of remorse.

His lips turn into a tight line, and he clenches his fists with force. After crouching down to grab leaves, Sousuke quickly walks towards Rin and smears the leaves on his red head, frotting his hands on the now dirty hair. Rin’s laughs grow louder as he pushes Sousuke away to defend himself with more leaves of yellow color.

They end up in the floor, Sousuke taking advantage of his strength over Rin to push him down and cover his face with leaves.

“Ok, ok! I give up!” Rin announces while fighting off the falling leaves on his face. Sousuke stops his torture with a smile, bloating his chest with childish pride for his victory. Rin’s laughs resonate through the forest until he sighs loudly.

The redhead doesn’t move from the floor, letting the bubbling sensation of his laughs to die off slowly with his eyes closed. Some of the yellow leaves are tangled on his hair, the red of it spread on the ground around his face like a halo. To Sousuke, Rin seems content.

Sousuke sits down next to Rin, staring at his friend. How his chest rises ever so slightly with every breath full of life that Rin takes, how his long eyelashes flutters, how his skin has a warm light, and how his red and long hair floods the forest’s floor.

Rin looks so perfect right now.

The teal eyes are wide open a second later. His heart once again bumping away as if it’s trying to escape from his body, with loud beatings against his ears that leave him deaf from the outside world.

Perfect.

Rin looks so perfect.

His hands tremble, his knees and his legs are trembling too. He feels he’s about to throw up if he doesn’t get up and runs away from this place, but somehow his whole body stops functioning correctly. So, he’s planted on the ground, without an opportunity to escape.

“Sousuke?”

Rin’s voice -- again -- brings him back from his inner feelings. The red eyes are looking at him with something that Sousuke doesn’t know how to translate.

“Are you sick or something? You look weird,” Rin keeps talking, not moving an inch from his place.

Sousuke, not finding his voice for the millionth time on his short life, shakes his head. He wants to look away, but Rin’s eyes doesn’t permit it, as if they somehow had taken control of the teal-eyed boy’s body to order him to stay where he is.

“... Sousuke?”

He doesn’t answer to the call because he doesn’t know how. His body decides that the better way to respond to Rin is to throw a single yellow leave to the redhead’s face. Rin chuckles, happy to see that everything is alright.

The next day, Sousuke gives Rin a new metal red pencil case as a gift.

 

The colors of the world slowly disappears to turn everything white with different shades of gray. The wind is cold to the face, turning cheeks and noses red with blush of blood under the skin. Making fragile fingers and knees tremble, the weather has changed to winter when everybody were distracted.

Sousuke is running. His breath hurts thanks to the cold air invading his lungs -- even though he’s breathing through his nose and not his mouth -- and yet he doesn’t stop running, not when his legs are begging to rest, not when his feet are burning.

A snowball passes really close to his head, flying across the air to fall onto the floor with a mute sound.

“Dammit!”

Another snowball flies his way, missing again.

“Sousuke, stop!”

The called boy doesn’t obey the order, but he looks back over his shoulder, smiling. Rin is running after him, he sometimes tries to stop and make a snowball but it’s impossible when he doesn’t stay still for more than three seconds in fear of losing sight of Sousuke.

It’s the winter break, meaning that school isn’t in the middle of their time anymore to bother them. Sousuke and Rin spend their time together from morning to sunset, and sometimes even beyond that when either Sousuke and Rin stays on each other’s house to sleep the night. They have been spending so much time that Sousuke feels weird whenever he doesn’t hear Rin’s voice or laugh in the proximity of his person.

Sousuke can’t get distracted with silly thoughts of how good Rin’s chuckles sounds, though, because he enters the forest he has become used to. The road is memorized on his mind and heart, no longer needing to stop in the middle of the trajectory to recover his way. Yet, he has to slow down his pace because the snow -- although is not terribly tall -- has covered the forest ground with its coldness and whiteness from last night’s snowfall.

It seems Rin decided to stop throwing snowballs at him for the moment, being too occupied trying to not fall because of the snow. In no time, Sousuke reaches the fort, where the weeping willow is, and Sousuke stops in awe at the sight. The tall tree is covered with the white snowflakes, heavy on its thin branches that still have yellow leaves in some parts. Sousuke is almost afraid of touching the curtain of branches to enter his and Rin’s private world, but his astonishment is interrupted when he feels a cold hit in his back.

He immediately turned around, meeting with Rin’s cheeky grin.

“Got you!” Rin celebrates, raising his arms in a victory pose, but soon he’s also amazed by the willow’s condition, opening his mouth wide. “Wow…” he murmurs with a soft voice.

Rin passes by him, stopping before the snow-covered curtain to touch it lightly. The branches shake just a little, so the snow remains on its place.

“It’s the first time this happens!”

Rins looks so excited about it, he’s so excited that Sousuke can see a red blush on his cheeks.

Last night’s snowfall must have been stronger than the previous ones, because it indeed is the first time the willow ends up like this.

The redhead boy puts his hands on his hips, looking up and up to the top of the tree.

“How are we getting in, tho?” He asks.

“We simply move away the branches as always, don’t we?” Sousuke replies, an eyebrow arches along with his question.

“If we do that the snow will fall!” Rin looks at him, frowning because Sousuke didn’t offer a better plan, “I want the snow to stay.”

“It’s impossible, Rin,” Sousuke sighs. Rin doesn’t reply to Sousuke’s comment, a hand on his chin indicating that he’s seriously trying to think of a plan to enter without disturbing the white snow. Sousuke sighs again, defeated before Rin’s whims once again.

Sousuke looks to the ground, staring at his snow boots that have traces of the white flurry from the ground. His feet are cold. For a moment he wonders if the old blanket that is in the wooden crate will be enough for both of them to not freeze for the day, it’s a good thing he brought hot chocolate on his backpack this time. Will it still be hot enough, though?

“Ah, I got it!” Rin’s shout is heard, making Sousuke look at him. “We can pass under the branches!” Rin crouches, his knees on the cold, white surface. The redhead peeks under the branches.

Sousuke guesses it’s a good enough plan, their clothes will probably get wet, but he knows that once Rin has decided something it’s completely impossible to make him stop. Rin is the first one to pass under the curtain, his chest and tummy over the snow, pulling himself with his arms military style.

“Wow!” Sousuke hears coming from the inside, “Sousuke, c’mon! Quick!”

The boy puts down his backpack, pushing it under the branches, and says, “Take the backpack first.”

When Rin pulls the backpack inside the curtain, Sousuke does the same as Rin previously did, feeling the cold snow wetting his clothes immediately, so he tries his best to pass as quickly as possible. He finally passes the ordeal, standing up and shaking off the remaining snow on his knees and jacket.

“Sousuke, Sousuke, look around!”

Sousuke looks at Rin and his eyes widen.

Rin is in the middle of a white canvas that glistens with the sunlight, although the atmosphere is a little darker than outside thanks to the thick layer of snow covering them. The snow extends to the floor, and to a huge majority of the branches. Sousuke always asked himself what an igloo would look like from the inside, this must be the closest thing to that.

But Sousuke’s eyes aren’t focusing in any of that, not in the beautiful white snow under his feet, not in the white curtain behind him, not in the cold of his nose. No. His teal eyes are fixed on Rin.

Rin’s red cheeks and nose, blushed with the warm tint. Rin’s wide smile with those white teeth. Rin’s red eyes looking expectantly at him with a shine that Sousuke doesn’t remember ever seeing before. Rin is the only source of color in this palace of white before Sousuke’s eyes.

“What do you think?! Amazing, right?!” Rin swirls once, looking around still smiling. “Ah! I wonder if I could climb up the willow! Would it be dangerous? Sousuke, what do you say?”

He doesn’t have a voice to respond.

Rin’s energy, his smile, his excitement, his  **everything** , is covering Sousuke like a hot wave of… of  **something**  that Sousuke can’t explain with simple words. His stomach is moving in that weird way yet again, and his hands feel hot even though he knows his gloves aren’t that warm in the first place.

Sousuke crouches down, rapidly making a snowball on his hands -- ignoring how hasty and fast his heart is beating, and how dry his mouth is -- to throw it directly to Rin’s chest.

“Huh?! Is that a challenge?!” Rin says as he drops Sousuke’s backpack in the snow, forgetting about it immediately in order to make his own snowball to attack his companion.

The first snowball coming from Rin hits him on his chest, and from then it turns out impossible to count how many hits each of them have received.

This, this is something Sousuke can understand and comprehend because it’s simple. Using his body, and not his brain, is simple for him because like that he doesn’t have to think much about how weird it feels to be with Rin when the redhead is so bright that Sousuke is afraid of looking directly at him.

In the middle of laughs and chuckles, one of Sousuke’s snowballs hits Rin in his head, shattering in thousands of little pieces the moment it touches the red hair. Remnants of white snow lingers on Rin’s hair.

“Ow…” Rin whimpers, closing his eyes as he rubs his head with a hand, “That hurt… be careful with your stupid strength, Sousuke!”

The black-haired boy doesn’t listen, continuing his attack without mercy when he sees Rin has his defenses down.

“Stop!” Rin insists, trying to cover himself with his arms, “Sousuke, I told you to stop, dammit!”

More. Sousuke wants more, and more. He wants to not think about it, he wants to not think about Rin being so perf--

“Sousuke!”

Sousuke stops suddenly, his hand cold and wet with a snowball in his right hand. His big body is cornering Rin against the willow.

Rin looks so small.

“What’s wrong with you?!” Rin shouts, his voice echoes through the silence of their private paradise, “You’ve been so weird lately! You attack me out of nowhere!”

Rin’s eyes start to tear up, transparent drops threatening to fall down his cheeks at any second.

“At first it was fun, but it isn’t anymore, Sousuke!”

There they are. The tears drop through Rin’s red face. Sousuke’s heart hurts.

“I--I thought we were friends! Aren’t we?!”

Sousuke wants to throw up.

“Yes, we are!” he replies instead, “It’s just--It’s your fault!”

“My fault?! What did I ever do to you?!”

Rin takes a step further, making Sousuke take one back, yelling, “It’s you who is attacking me without reason!”

“No, it’s your fault! With your pretty hair, and how you smell. You make me feel weird!”

“How is that supposed to be  **my**  fault, you prick?!”

Rin pushes Sousuke with both hands. Sousuke tramples a little but regains his balance without much trouble. Sousuke pushes Rin back, and Rin returns the push again.

Soon they are both pulling and pushing each other, every time with more force than the previous one. Rin is the first one to punch Sousuke on his shoulder, to which the black-haired boy responds with a fist of his own.

Grunts and complains surround them in no time.

“You are stupid!”

“Your face is stupid!”

“At least my hair is pretty!”

“Shut up, idiot!”

Sousuke uses his strength against Rin, pushing him one last time to the floor, keeping him there with a strong hand on Rin’s shoulder. When Sousuke is about to deliver his next punch, he stops his fist in the middle of the air.

Rin’s hair is spread around his face, making contrast against the white snow under him, some of the threads are covered in snow but the red color prevails proud and hypnotizing. The smaller boy’s breath is uneven, panting, and his eyebrows are frowned.

His fist slowly drops to his side. Sousuke lets go of Rin’s shoulder and plops himself next to the redhead. Now that he pays attention, he’s also breathing hastily.

“This is stupid,” Sousuke says.

“You’re the stupid one,” Rin replies.

Sousuke knows that they probably should stand up from the snow if they don’t want to spend the rest of the winter break sick, but he doesn’t feel like suggesting the idea, it doesn’t feel like the correct thing to do right now.

So, they just stay there, with their backs cold and eyes fixed in the branches of the willow, covered with a thick layer of snow. Their breathes the only sound around them.

“You…” Rin starts talking. Sousuke turns his head to look at Rin, but the boy is still staring away. “Do you really think my hair is pretty?”

Sousuke looks away, to the branches again, and he clenches his fists taking some snow between his cold fingers.

“Yeah…” he replies.

His stammering heart is the only thing he can hear for the next few moments, until Rin speaks.

“I think your eyes are pretty.”

Sousuke immediately looks at Rin. His companion still isn’t looking at him, on contrary, Rin turned his face to the other side, so Sousuke can’t see him to his eyes.

“Really?” Sousuke asks. Rin’s body tenses at the sound of his voice.

“Yeah.”

“... Oh.”

More silence surrounds them, but this time it doesn’t feel as constrictive as the one they had seconds ago, and it helps Sousuke to calm down his hasty heart.

“I also like your eyes,” Sousuke adds. Sensing movement from the other boy, Sousuke turns his eyes to see Rin, who is looking at him.

“Thanks,” Rin whispers, and smiles slightly.

This smile isn’t as wide as his usual smiles, but for some reason it brights even more. Before his voice gets lost again, Sousuke looks away from Rin, to the branches. From the corner of his eye, he can see Rin doing the same.

“Hey, Sousuke.”

“What?”

“I don’t like it when you get like that.”

“... I’m sorry.”

“Do you promise to not do that again?”

“Yes, Rin. Sorry.”

The redhead doesn’t reply at first.

“Hey, Sousuke.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I hold your hand?”

Sousuke tenses, still not looking at his friend, he swallows hard and his stomach twitches once again with brutal force.

“Yes.”

As soon as he finishes answering, his hand is grabbed by Rin’s. It’s wet and cold, the glove useless now that they both are damp.

 

“Sousuke, hey! Sousuke!”

He opens his eyes, teal color fixed on his white surroundings covered in snow.

The sky is gray, the sun being hidden behind thick clouds of an upcoming snowfall. The huge weeping willow is coated in snow, with its thin branches forming that curtain to another dimension in their insides.

Sousuke looks to his side. Rin is walking towards him.

This Rin, this adult Rin, the college student Rin that lives with him in Tokyo but that decided with him to come back to their little town for vacation, is smiling widely at him with his sharpened teeth and his red hair styled in a little ponytail. He’s wearing a thick jacket because he can’t handle the cold that well.

“I knew you would be here,” Rin says when he stands next to Sousuke, looking at the white weeping willow. “It’s been just three years from last time we saw this tree, right?”

“Yes,” Sousuke replies, his voice is deep.

“I wonder if the flag is still there. It was three years ago.”

“You wanna check?”

“Nah, I want--”

“The snow to stay,” Sousuke interrupts, looking at Rin while smiling. Rin returns the smile.

The black-haired man takes out his gloved hand from his jacket, offering it to Rin, who takes it without hesitation, interlacing their fingers.

“It was here where you first told me my hair is pretty, remember?” Rin asks.

“Of course.”

“Who would have thought that you started to have gay feelings since that young?” Rin comments, snickers escaping from his lips between the words.

“I, too, remember you saying that my eyes are pretty,” Sousuke retorts and Rin shuts up, clicking his tongue.

“Little gay boys, I guess.”

The silence extends around them, comfortable silence that doesn’t have to be filled with anything else because neither Sousuke nor Rin need to. Because they both learnt, long ago, that these moments of silence are precious to them, to enjoy each other’s company without anything else in the middle of them.

“Hey, Rin,” Sousuke calls his companion, turning his body towards him.

“Yeah?” Rin looks at him, facing him.

“I love you, Rin.”

Sousuke smiles when seeing Rin’s cheeks turning a shade of red, dusting the skin with the warm blush.

“I love you too, Sousuke.”

Sousuke leans down to kiss Rin, the redhead meets him halfway, linking their lips in a warm kiss.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I was one day on twitter and thought.
> 
> "What if Sousuke was one of those annoying kids who bullied their crush?"
> 
> I don't think Sousuke in this story could be classified as a BULLY, but he sure was annoying and bothersome, lmao. 
> 
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated!!
> 
> You can also find me on my tumblr [AleishaDreams](http:www.aleishadreams.tumblr.com) and my twitter [ActualAleisha](http:www.twitter.com/actualaleisha)


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